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| 18th November (BALI Conference) |
| BALI 2003 View photos from the conference by clicking here 18.11.03 I know the title for this entry is going to confuse the hell out of everyone back home so firstly I need to clarify that when I say I had a great time at Bali over the weekend I�m not talking about the tropical island paradise just north of our shores. What I am talking about is the regional AIESEC conference that took place here in Bavaria over the weekend. The local AISECers have a habit of naming their conferences after tropical destinations so I was a bit confused to start with as well when I first heard everyone was heading to Bali but all was soon clarified. The Bali adventures started midday on Friday when Lou and I met up with some other Augsburg AIESECers and took the 4-hour train ride to Windischeschenbach in the very outer limits of Bavaria. After some introductory stuff we were soon getting into party mode with the theme for the first night�s party being �Beach � hot chicks, cool beer� (you�ve got to love these crazy German English translations). The beer flowed freely and the 140 odd people on the conference made for a great atmosphere. I had some lucky early wins at fussball before being convincingly thrashed by the locals. I then moved onto trying to replicate some ball spinning acrobatics that one of the international trainees, Fiona, from Singapore had demonstrated. Unfortunately I wasn�t quite as elegant at it as Fiona and managed to take out part of the lighting during my efforts. |
| Other highlights included Ansgar appearing in his toga and then Flo sticking his head up it, and the snorkel beer sculling. The next morning, a little bit worse for wear; I managed to emerge from my bed in time for the start of the workshops although too late for breakfast. Robert from Munich had conspired to get me in trouble with the punishment team after �relocating� my cup the night before and so I was forced to write �Mississippi� with my arse in the air during the morning plenary. A full day of workshops and we headed back into the plenary for some cultural presentations where I taught everyone an Aussie sculling song. I�ve included a new link on the left side of the home page (previous page) titled "Aussie Culture" that includes sculling songs, drinking games, and other assorted Australian information for those of you that asked for it. After the plenary we had a global village where all of us internationals tried to share a bit of our local cultures. For most people this meant putting on alcohol but I hadn�t managed to arrange any Fosters so I enticed people in with a game of Jenga instead. The rest of the night was spent doing some AIESEC dances on the dance floor, of which there are many, and then some intensive drinking game sessions where I managed to slap my face when I was meant to instead be simply saying �7�. Some stage soon after this, although I don�t recall exactly when, I crashed out and slept solid through until 11:30 the next morning. Feeling a bit seedy I eventually emerged for the final stages of the conference. For all those AIESECers that were there on the weekend thanks for a great time and I look forward to seeing those of you who are coming to BAHAMAS in three weeks time. One last note, as many of you are aware this weekend represents a major event for Australian sport. Our national rugby team, the Wallabies, take on our old foes, the English (known to us as the Poms) in the World Cup Rugby final, which we are hosting in Sydney. Since I�m on the other side of the world I�ve decided to head with some friends to Ned Kelly�s Australian Sports Bar in Munich on Saturday morning to catch the game. It�s going to be an orgy of sports on Saturday since we�re following up the rugby by seeing the two Bavarian teams that play in Federal league play each other in a derby competition in Munich. It�s a bit like a Port Adelaide/Crows showdown match for those South Aussies reading. Should be an awesome day and I�ll be putting plenty of photos up this time next week from Saturday. Go you Aussies! You can see all the photos from the BALI conference by clicking here. Till next time, Ned. |